Milan desperation weighing heavily on Ancelotti

With just seven matches left in the Serie A season, AC Milan are starting to panic. They sit sixth in the table, have lost their last two home matches and trail Fiorentina in the crucial race for fourth place by four points.

The only saving grace for Milan is that Fiorentina's current form is no better, having lost their last two away matches. Last season Milan claimed the Champions League title and in December they added the Club World Cup to their honours list.

Back then they had already given up hope of winning the title having got off to a dreadful start in Serie A, failing to win in their first seven home matches while city rivals Inter were storming away.

They reassessed their goals, set their sights on fourth place, and a ticket to the Champions League, and by the end of February, following six wins in seven matches, they looked all set to achieve that aim.

But it has all gone wrong since then.

Arsenal won 2-0 at the San Siro to knock them out of the Champions League in the second round and they have won only two of their last seven league encounters, losing three times.

Coach Carlo Ancelotti spent more than an hour in the dressing room following the 2-1 defeat to Atalanta on Sunday before coming out to face the press. "We're being incapacitated by the number of mistakes we're making at home," he said. "We're starting slowly and in the end we're paying for it. "We're not concentrating in several situations like against Sampdoria (their previous home defeat). Matches become very difficult when you do this."

Ancelotti joined his team's vice-president Adriano Galliani in criticising the referee, who disallowed two goals.

The first by Clarence Seedorf was offside but the second from Massimo Ambrosini was chalked off for a foul on the goalkeeper, which looked a harsh decision. "The referee played like us. He had a bad first half and a bad second half," added Ancelotti. "Ambrosini's goal should have stood. Having said that it's not his fault we lost."

Milan have not been helped by injuries among their forwards.

Ronaldo is out for the season, Filippo Inzaghi is out injured and world player of the year Kaka is also on the sidelines.

Alberto Gilardino is desperately short of form, meaning Milan are often relying on two 18-year-olds, Brazilian Pato and Alberto Paloschi, to fire them to victory.

It's not been working well."Now we need to change something," admitted Ancelotti. "We can't continue like this. We hope to have Kaka back for the next match.(source: yahoo)